The thoughts, semi-thoughts, splenetic rantings and vague half ideas, of a leftie-lib marooned in Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Thursday, 10 January 2008

151,000 Iraqis killed since invasion

According to the World Health Organisation. Main points, courtesy of Stuff/Reuters(1).

"About 151,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the three years following the US-led invasion of their country, according to the World Health Organisation"

"violent deaths could have ranged from 104,000 to 223,000 between March 2003 and June 2006"

"The study drew on an Iraqi health ministry survey of nearly 10,000 households – five times the number of those interviewed in a disputed 2006 John Hopkins University study that said more than 600,000 Iraqis had died over the period."

The figure "exceeds the widely-cited 80,000 to 87,000 death toll by the human rights group Iraq Body Count"

" insecurity made parts of Baghdad and Anbar provinces unreachable for those conducting the survey ... Many families also fled their homes as a result of the violence, and some left the country, making it hard to give a precise assessment of the violence in Iraq. As a result, Ali said the margin of error for the toll was relatively high."

"More than half of the violent deaths documented in the WHO report occurred in Baghdad."

"An average of 128 Iraqis suffered violent deaths every day in the first year following the invasion. The next year, an average of 115 were killed daily and 126 died from violence each day in the third year after the war started."

Of course, it doesn't matter if the figure is 80K, 150K or the dubious 600K. It is still a mid-numbing loss of life. But if the 150K figure is approximately right, then it is the equivalent of everyone in Palmerston North being killed. Twice.